Policy analysis by Kip Sullivan
Kip Sullivan is one of HCA-MN’s policy advisors.
Health Care Quality Reporting
Minnesota Physician has published a two part series on health care quality reporting by Kip Sullivan. Part 1 Re-evaluating “performance” measurement: Minnesota’s teachable moment Part
Revenue Data on MN’s Hospital Chains
Kip Sullivan’s reaction to a recent Minneapolis StarTribune article on the tug-of-war between nonprofit hospitals and insurers over efforts to rein in costs. Plus there
Rep Jayapal and Sen Sanders Have Introduced Medicare For All Bills: One Is a Lot Better Than the Other
Two bills that are called “Medicare for all” bills by their supporters have just been introduced in Congress. On February 27, Representative Pramila Jayapal introduced
New Study: Medicare’s Readmission Penalties May Be Killing Patients
On the morning of December 21, I opened my copy of the New York Times to find an op-ed that said almost exactly what I had
Part II | MedPAC’s Proposed “Reforms” Should Be Tested Before They’re Implemented: CMS’s Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program Is Exhibit A
The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), one of numerous pay-for-performance (P4P) schemes authorized by the Affordable Care Act, was sprung on the Medicare fee-for-service population
MedPAC’s Proposed “Reforms” Should Be Tested Before They’re Implemented: CMS’s Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program Is Exhibit A
Egged on by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), Congress has imposed multiple pay-for-performance (P4P) schemes on the fee-for-service Medicare program. MedPAC recommended most of
Understanding the debate about reducing health care costs: Part I
Understanding the debate about reducing health care costs: Part 2
Kip Sullivan continues his thoughts on reducing health care costs.
Understanding the debate about reducing health care costs: Part 3
In Part 3, Sullivan takes a look at solutions to reducing health care costs.
Seema Verma Hyperventilates About Tiny Differences Between ACOs Exposed to One-and Two-Sided Risk
There is no meaningful difference between the performance of Medicare ACOs that accept only upside risk (the chance to make money) and ACOs that accept
A Critique of Section 611(b) in Bernie Sanders’ “single payer” bill
Download a PDF of this report. Overview The most important defects in Bernie Sanders’ “single payer” bill, S 1804, are: The absence of budgets for
Understanding the Debate about Reducing Health Care Costs
Kip Sullivan, J.D. is a health policy expert and frequent blogger. He has been a Minnesota-based organizer and researcher on healthcare issues for more than
Why Do We Need ACOs and Insurance Companies?
Why Do We Need ACOs and Insurance Companies? Why does America need “accountable care organizations” as well as insurance companies? What is it that ACOs
Would ACOs Work if They Were Turned into HMOs?
CMS has now conducted three demonstrations of the “accountable care organization,” and all of them have failed. The Physician Group Practice (PGP) Demonstration, which ran
How CMS Undermines ACOs and What to do About It
In my first post in this three-part series, I documented three problems with Pioneer ACOs: High churn rates among patients and doctors; assignment to ACOs
ACO Turnover is High. Doctors Have Few Patients, and Those Patients are Unusually Healthy
ACOs suffer astonishingly high turnover rates among their doctors and patients; their patients are unusually healthy; and those unusually healthy ACO patients constitute about 5